Hand brake



J. F. OCONN'OR March 1, 1932.

HAND BRAKE Filed Aug.-14, 1930 Patented Mar. 1, 1932 S AT E s;

P NT OFFICE 1 JOHN F. OCONNOR, oncHIoAoo, ILLINOIS, AssIGNoR TO w. H. MINER, 1110,01? orIIcAGo,

ILLINOIS; a CORPORATION OF DELAWARE HAND BRAKE Application. filed August 14, 1930. Serial No. 475,199.

This invention relates to improvements in hand brakes.

One obj ectof the invention is to provide an eflicient, durable hand brake mechanism for railway cars including power-multiplying means for actuating the chain Winding mechanism, wherein the winding mechanism includes a pair of. chain winding drums on which the brake chain is simultaneously to wound, the drums being actuated by worm means cooperating with worm wheel gears on both drums, and wherein complete and quickreleaseof the brakes is had with free runningof the-chain windingdrums by com- 15 pletely disengaging the worm means from the gears of both drums.simultaneously.

Another object. of the invention is to provide in a brake mechanism of the character. described in the preceding paragraph, man:

i'fl ually controlled means; for effecting disengagement: of the worm and worm gears, to gether with, latching means automatically operative to hold and maintain said worm and'lwormgears engagedv during application of. the brakes. V

A. further object of the invention is to provide a hand brake mechanism of the powermultiplying type includinga pair of rotary chain winding drums and: worm means cooperating with worm gears for rotatingthe drums,.wherein wear of the bearing means of. the rotary'parts of the mechanism is reduced to a minimum by providing left and right threads on the worm member cooperating with worm gears on the drums, thereby forcing the, drums toward each other, and by providing bearingpcontactbetween the drums, thus relieving thebea-ringmeans of the drums from lateral thrust.

"" Other objects of. the invention will more clearly appear from the description and claims hereinafter following.

In thedrawings forming a part of this specification, Figurel is a vertical sectional View of my improved hand brake mechanism,

illustrating the same as applied to the vertical'end: .wall of a railway car, the section bein'gin a planeiparallelfto saidwall and 7 corresponding to the line 1'1. of Figure 2.

" Figure; 2 is a vertical, transverse sectional View, corresponding substantially to the line 7:;

2-2 of Figure 1. And Figure 3 is a front elevational view of a portion of the housing and other operating parts illustrating an other embodiment of my invention. 7

In carrying out my invention, I enclose the operating parts of the improved hand brake mechanism within a housing which is secured to the vertical end wall of the railway car. In the embodiment of the inventionillustrated in Figures 1 and 2, the housing comprises spaced side walls 1010'; a ver-' tical rear wall 11; a vertical front wall 12, and a horizontal top wall 13. The verticalrear wall 11 is provided with top and bottom extensions 14-14:, in the form of flanges, by which the housing is directly secured to the car wall, which is indicated by 15. Any suitable securing means may be employed, rivets being shown that extend through said flanges and through the-end wall 15. The housing is open at the bottom as clearly shown in 7 Figures 1 and 2,-so as to accommodate the brake chain'16 for movement. The brake chain 16 is a single loop passing over a sheave below, so as to equalize the stresses on each length, the ends being attached to separate drums, as shown in Figure 1. The sheave is connected to the usual'chain which in turn is connected to the brake mechanism proper of the car. I

My improved brake mechanism proper, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, comprises, broad- 1y, a pair ofchain winding drums A-A; a pair of wormgears 13-13, a worm C having righthand and lefthand threads; an operating hand wheel D a pivoted carrier E for the worm; an operating lever F for the carrier; and latching means G for the carrier.

The chain winding drums A-A are of similar design,ex'cept as hereinafter pointed out. Each drum comprises an elongated cylindrical chain w indingsection and an enlargement at one end thereof forming the worm gear B. The drum is supported on an elongated shaft 17, which has its opposite ends supported in hollow bosses 1818 projecting inwardly from the opposed side walls 10 of the housing. As most clearly shown in. Figure 1, each shaft 17 is headed at one end and has a securing nut threaded on the other head thereof, the head and the nut being accommodated within the corresponding hollow bosses. The chain winding drum A which is disposed outermost, or at the righthand side as shown in Figure 2, has a worm gear thereon provided with worm threads which are righthand. This drum, as shown in Figure 1, has the chain 16 connected to the right-hand end thereof; the chain being see cured by a pin 19 extending through the end link of the chain and a pair of outstanding lugs 20-2O on the winding section of the drum. The chain winding drum A, which is 1 located at the rear of the housing, being the lefthand drum as viewed in Figure 2, has the chain secured to the opposite end thereof, that is, the end remote from the worm gear B of the same, and is provided with lugs 20, similar to the lugs of the other drum and the chain is secured to the lugs by means of a pin extending through the end link. The worm gear of the drum last described, has lefthand threads thereon. r

The worm member C is mounted in the housing above the two worm gears of the chain winding drums and has the opposite ends thereof rotatably mounted in bearing openings 31-31, provided in the pivoted carrier E hereinafter more fully described. The worm'C has two setsof threads 22 and 23 thereon, the threads 22 being lefthand, and the threads 23 being righthand, as clearly shown in Figure 2, and meshing respectively with the lefthand and righthand threads of the two worm gears of the chain winding drums. The worm C projects through the front wall 12 of the housing and has the hand wheel D secured thereto,'the hand wheel being provided with a shouldered opening 24 in the hub thereof,-receiving the outer end of the worm member andan annular retaining flange 25 thereon. The hand wheel D is locked to the worm member in any suitable manner, the same being herein shown as keyed thereto. a

The pivoted carrier E comprises an operating lever F and a pair of arms 2727 fixed thereto, the arms together forming a forked member. At the upper ends, the arms 27 are provided with enlargements 28-28, form ing bearing members. The carrier is pivotally or swingingly supported at the upper end by means of a shaft 29 extending through the bosses 28'28 thereof and having its opposite ends secured to the front and rear walls of the housing. At the lower ends, the arms 2727 forming the forked member of the carrier, have extensions 3030 which embrace the operating hand lever F and are secured thereto by rivets. The arms 2727 are also provided with bearing openings 31-31 immediately below the bosses 2828 within which the opposite ends of the worm C are rotatably supported. In order to acshown in full lines in said figure, and the opening in the opposed wall being indicated by 33 as shown in dotted lines.

In order to lock the carrier E inoperative position so that the worm C will be held engaged with the worm'gears during the chain wvincling operation, I provide the latching means The latching means G comprises a slidinglatch' element 34 mounted directly on the operating lever F and means for actuating the slide comprising a pivoted finger piece 35 pivotally mounted on the operating handle at the hand grip end thereof, as shown in Figure 1, and a connecting link 36 having its opposite ends pivotally secured to the finger piece35and the slide 34. To maintainthe latch slide '34 in latching engagement, a spring 37 is provided, which has one end thereof secured to the lever F and the oppositeend bearing on the inner side of the 0 operating end portion of the finger piece 35. At the upper end, the latching slide 3 1'is provided'with a notch 38 which cooperates with the bottom edge ofthe righthand wall 10 of the housing, as shown in Figure 1.

The operation of my improved hand brake mechanism, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, during tightening of the brakes, is as fol lows: The operating hand wheel D is rotated in a clockwise direction, as viewed in Figure 1, while the worm C is operatively engaged with the worm gears BB of the twochain winding drums. Rotation of the and wheel effects rotation of the worm C in a clockwise direction, also, and, throughthe right and lefthand threads of the worm, which mesh with the corresponding righthand and lefthand threaded worm gears of the two chain winding drums, the drums are simultaneously rotated in opposite directions,

rotation of the two drums -AA toward each other, that-is, the inner drum as shown in Figure 2, will be rotated in a clockwise direction, while the outer drum will be rotated in a counter-clockwise direction. drums are so supported within the housing that the worm gear members thereof will be in bearing engagement with each other, each worm gear B being provi'ded with bearlng surfaces-at opposite sidesof the threads there of. As will be evident, due to the thrust errerted by the rotating thread portions of the worm element, there will be a tendency to force the chain winding drums A -A toward each other, thereby causing the bearing sur face port-ions of the worm gears to roll on The two each other, relieving the bearing members of the chain winding drums fromlateral thrust. Further due to the worm threads of the worm member being right and left, an equalizing effect is brought about, thereby preventing end thrust and reducing wear of the bearings to a minimum.

In releasing the brakes, the Worm element C is entirely disengaged from the two worm gears B-B of the chain winding drums. To effect this operation, the carrier E is swung. upwardly on the pivot thereof by means of the operating handle F. As will be evident, when the worm member is entirely disengaged from the two worm gears, the chain winding drums are free to rotate, thereby per mitting immediate release of the brakes without rotation of the hand wheel D. During the chain tightening operation, the carrier E is effectively locked in operative position by the latching means G on the operating lever F. As will be obvious, the latching means 34 may be quickly disengaged by depressing the finger piece 35 toward the hand grip of the operating lever, thus causing the link' 36 to slide the latch element 3 1 outwardly on the handle. I

Referring next to the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figure 3, the operating parts of the mechanism are substantially the same as those hereinbefore described in connection with Figures 1 and 2, the carrier for the driving Worm element and the operating means therefor being of different construction. The carrier for the worm element, as shown in Figure 3, is located beneath the chain winding drums andthe worm gears and a modified form of carrier latching means is also employed. One of the chain winding drums of the hand brake mechanism is shown in dotted lines in Figure 3 and is indicated by A, this drum being in all repects similar to one of the drums A hereinbefore described and having a worm gear B formed integral therewith. The worm element which is also shown in dotted lines, is indicated by C and is provided with right and lefthand threads which cooperate with the right and lefthand threaded worm gears on the two chain winding drums in a manner similar to the corresponding parts hereinbefore described. The carrier for the worm C comprises an actuating leverF,havingapair of arms 127 similar to the arms 2727 hereinbefore described in connection with Figures 1 and 2, fixed thereto. At the upper ends, the arms 12'? are pivotally supported in the housing, beneath the worm gears B, by a pivot bolt or shaft 129. The upper forked end of the pivoted carrier has inwardly projecting angular extensions 140-140 in which the opposite end portions of the worm ele ment are rotatably supported. The carrier is held in operative position, with the worm element engaged with the threads of the two worm gearsIB -B' by means of; a sliding latch bar; 141, which engagesthe righthand side of the forked portion: 127-12? .of'the carrier, asshown'in Figure. 3. The sliding latch bar 141 is supportedfdirectl'y on the housing by means of oustanding spaced. lugs l l214l2: on 'the corresponding. side wall, of saidhousing'. The latch bar 141 is guided between each pair of lugs"142-1142 and has vertically disposed guide," slots 143143 therein-,through which guide pins 1 l4-144= fixed tothe lugs 142-142, extend. i

x The: operation of the hand. brake mechanismas-ill-ustrated'in Figure 3, is substantially: the same as that herjeinbefore described in connection with Figures 1 and 2. In disengaging" the worm element from the two worm gears, the vbrakeman slides the latch barlll upwardly, thereby permitting swinging movement-of the operating lever F and the carrier to the right, as viewed inFigure 3, and allowing complete disengagement of the wormelement-from the gears. V .I h-ave herein shown and described what I now consider the preferred manner'of carrying out my invention, but the same is merely illustrative and I contemplate all changes and modifications that come within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

I claim:

1. In a chain winding mechanism for hand brakes, the combination with a housing enclosing the winding mechanism, said housing having a stop shoulder on a wall thereof; of a horizontally disposed chain winding drum rotatably journaled in said housing above said stop shoulder; a carrier pivotally suspended within the housing from a point above said drum; cooperating worm and .worm wheel members for actuating said drum,-one of said members being fixed to the drum and the other member being rotatably mounted on said carrier; an operating lever arm fixed to the bottom of said carrier, said arm having a sliding latch block mounted thereon having shouldered engagement with said stop shoulder; and means on said lever arm for operating said latch block and holding the same engaged with said shoulder.

2. In a chain Winding mechanism for hand brakes,the combination with a housing enclosing the winding mechanism, said housing having a step shoulder on a wall thereof; of a horizontally disposed chain winding drum rotatably journaled in said housing above said stop shoulder a carrier pivotally suspended within the housing from a point above said drum; cooperating worm and worm wheel members for actuating said drum, one of said members being fixed to the drum and the other member being rotatably mounted on said carrier; an operating lever arm fixed to the bottom of said carrier, said arm having a sliding latch block mounted thereon having shouldered engagement with said stop shoulder; and manually controlled toggle means mounted on said lever arm for actuating said latch block.

3. In a chain winding mechanism for hand brakes, the combination with a housing enclosing thewinding mechanism, said housing having a stop shoulder on a wall thereof; of a horizontally disposed chain winding drum rotatably journaled in said housing above said stop shoulder; a carrier pivotally suspended within the housing from a point above said drum; cooperating worm and worm wheel members for actuating said drum, one of said members being fixed to the drum and the other member being rotatably mounted on said carrier; an operating lever arm fixed to the bottom of said carrier, said arm having a sliding latch block mounted thereon having shouldered engagement with said stop shoulder; a crank arm pivoted to said lever arm adjacent to the outer end thereof; a link having its opposite ends pivotally connected to said crank arm and block; and springmeans for yieldingly opposing relative movement of said crank arm and lever arm.

In Witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my name this 11th day of August, 1930.

7 JOHN F. OOONNQR. 

